"Thanks. I'll shoot you an email once I've figured out some good translations for these, and then we can really get into the nitty-gritty. In the mean time - I can teach you some technomagy, you can explain your sensing technique? I'm mostly flying blind, in terms of magic senses."

"Yeah!"

She excitedly explains everything she can remember or sort of half remember and half magically know about meditation and sensing magic.

Mal sets up a recorder, and then explains technomagy as applied to light bulbs. Which does involve explaining electricity and circuits and resistance and all that - how much does Loki know about that?

That's kid stuff, as far as she's concerned.

Good! Then they'll quickly have a glowing light bulb not connected to any power sources.

Raine's thing is less straightforwardly shareable, but she knows a lot more about the history of blood and incantation magic that she can share the basics of, and recommend some library books to Loki.

"Thanks!"

Loki trades emails with the other two girls, and makes loose plans to form a study group - they only have classes four days a week, so Friday's a good time for studying.

And then she needs to head off to her next class, which is one she'll only have Monday and Wednesday but for longer blocks - history. According to her schedule, Monday's for general history overviews, and Wednesday's for independent or guided study in special topics. Her history teacher's an excited mutant with electric blue hair and a smattering of dark green scales across brown skin, who claims to be able to touch an object to get a sense of its history. He doesn't draw any particular attention to Loki until class ends, when he holds her back to exchange contact information so he can make sure she's caught up.

Then it's arts class - another one that's all four days. Monday's on literature. And after arts, her last class is another Monday/ Wednesday one, modern geography and culture. She's in literature with both Silv and Kendra, and in history and geography with Silv. (Some comparing of schedules revealed that her technologies class tomorrow's going to be with Silv, but her sciences class will be with Kendra).

Basically all of the classes are small, and focus on the teachers helping students with their own learning projects instead of on lectures or anything.

As the week goes on, she gets better quickly at the small magics. Music class gives her a few ideas for using songs as a framework for magic, and technology class is fascinating - human technology of course is a bit primitive, but they do so much with what little they have, and (a little whisper in her mind insists) they don't cripple themselves by insisting on one aesthetic. Physical arts class is so-so, but the teacher doesn't mind if Loki changes her clay color with magic, so. (Loki ends up with a very glittery hammer she's definitely sending to Thor).

Theater, the last of the art class rotation, quickly asserts itself as Loki's absolute favorite. She's joining theater club. She's also downloading several old plays to read over the weekend, and seeing if the theater groups around grounds have room in their plays for her, even though it's pretty late in the semester.

She keeps Thor and Captain America updated through email, of course, and calls Thor every other day to ramble at him about stuff her friends are doing or what she did in class or did he know humans have multiple kinds of theater, it's not just reciting sagas???

Captain America seems more familiar with email than Thor. He tells her his non-secret identity (Steve Rogers), and says he might fill in for Thor on some of the parent-type duties as Steve, since Thor's been a lot busier than him lately. (He leaves off that this is because of fallout from the old Loki's destruction of Asgard).

He's very happy she's enjoying her classes, and actually has a few things to recommend - pieces of art history especially. Being able to magic your paint to another color does sound quite convenient, too.

And after her first full week there, there's an optional teacher-guardian meeting, which Thor can't attend but Steve shows up for. As a civilian, of course.

Loki meets him at the gate! And gives him an only somewhat impulsive hug.

She's not actually going to be in the meeting, but she shows him around the grounds excitedly before his appointment.

He is quite glad of the tour!

After the meeting (which goes well, if somewhat tediously), to Loki: "So, want to head into one of the nearby towns? Figure we can eat out, or get ice cream or something."

"Oooo! You know, I haven't had ice cream yet..."

"That is a great wrong that must be addressed, then."

She laughs.

Onward, to ice cream!

He never had ice cream in his old life, so he doesn't bother finding anything nostalgic and just goes for charmingly weird. Loki can have anywhere from classic chocolate and vanilla to lavender or green tea.

Once ice cream selections have been made, he finds them a little out of the way booth, and asks her how she's been doing, if people are being friendly...

She's been good! She has four whole friends she meets with outside of class, and most people have either been friendly or have been ignoring her in class. She also likes most of her professors, though some of them are boring...

Boring professors are a hazard of the educational field, sadly. Still, it's good she's getting to self-direct a lot of her education, having to sit down and listen to lectures is the worst.

Sounds it, definitely.

Ice cream gets eaten, eventually, and he drops her back off at Xavier's, with a promise to visit again soon.

She waves until he's out of sight, and then goes back to his dorm.

"Who was that?" Kendra asks. "I thought Thor was your guardian?"

"That was Steve. He's a really good friend of Thor's, so since Thor's busy a lot with the Avengers he's picking up some of the guardian stuff."

Actually she has no clue what her legal guardianship status is...

"Huh. Guess that makes sense."

"Yeah! So, anyways, were you going to see the spring break play..."

And the conversation winds on.

That evening she emails Steve to thank him for the ice cream, and also ask if he knows what's up with her legal status?

He does in fact know! Thor's not legally a United States citizen, and is technically visiting under some very complicated papers meant for alien superheroes, which wouldn't apply to her, and they couldn't easily get her refugee status. And bringing her before a judge might be complicated and end poorly given her past self has a local criminal record. There's been a few ideas floated, which he describes - getting Thor a family exemption to the alien hero status, getting her adopted by a US citizen, getting her asylum given her destroyed home world...

Can Steve adopt her? He's about as American citizen as it gets. (And he's also one of the only other adults she knows, and has been doing pretty good at this guardian thing so far, she thinks.)